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Well, talking about The Record Bar brings another record store to mind, one I haven't thought about in years.

In the early 1980s, there was a record store just across from The Horseshoe, on Sumter Street. It was on the ground floor of the building next to the restaurant that was McDonalds, then Lizards Thicket and is now, I think, Tios. This particular building also had a Sandy's Hotdogs and a video arcade.

I liked to stop into the place from time to time since it was almost on campus, and was a shorter walk than going down to Five Points, and despite its small size, it had an interesting selection of music. I remember in particular, that they had an import copy of The Beach Boys "Stack O' Tracks" album, one of the oddest releases ever put out by a major rock group, and long out of print in the US at the time, and a Stan Kenton album I wanted. Despite the fact that I bought both, neither could have been hot sellers on a college campus in 1980..

I'm guessing that the owner must have been pretty plugged into the local music scene, because of one incident I remember in particular. I was browsing in the back of the store, and a guy walked in with a bunch of 45s. The owner put one on the turntable, and the store was filled with this incredible stripped down bass-heavy New Wave groove under a piercing vocal:

A-Bomb woke me up -- only thing alarming was the noise!

At the end, the guy who had brought the 45s in said he was still a little unhappy with the mix, but that they were going to go with it. I didn't know it at the time, but the guy with the 45s almost had to have been Jeff Calder and the song was "The A-Bomb Woke Me Up" off of the Swimming Pool Qs first album The Deep End. It was a little slice of history, and a band that should have been huge.

I'm pretty sure the store was gone by the mid 80s, and I can't even recall the name now. It was not New Clear Days. NCD was in the same building, but upstairs where this store was downstairs, and came in much later. Anyone remember what this place was called?

UPDATE 17 Sep 08: Originally this post was just titled "Record Store", but the consensus seems to be that it was "Budget Tapes & Records", and I have changed the post title accordingly. Thanks folks!

Now that you have the photos up with this thread, another piece of history/trivia/nostalgia came to mind. In photo #1 and #2 if you pan the camera left just a little there is a parking lot where in 1976 there stood a tiny little building that was The Cyclist, owned and operated by Columbia's own Joe Azar.

The building had been a little gas station -- you know those stations that looked like little houses from the 40s or even the 30s?

I was carless, licenseless and broke, therefore into bikes in a big way, and Joe and I designed me a custom commuter bike that cost $400 -- an unheard of bunch of money for a bicycle in 1976 -- and he let me pay it off over about 6 months.

FYI Joe's bike mechanic those days was Bruce Schultze, who now owns The Bohemian on Devine St.

in the beginning (late 60s),
in the little cottage in the
parking lot, was Sounds of Inc.
Sounds of eventually expanded,
moved to the right half of the
building in the picture, that's
when The Cyclist opened or
moved into the cottage ...

Sounds of carried bootlegs!
what a revelation. around 1971
or 72 (before i got a job at
Music City), i'd walk up there
a couple of times a week to
spend my babysitting money ...

about that time, the original
owner sold it to a guy who
bought into the Budget Tapes
& Records franchise. they
were all over the country at
the time. my first stereo
was the last store setup from
Sounds of, i bought it 3rd
hand from the guy who got it
when the store changed hands.

Music City was the screaming
orange building at 2400
Millwood Avenue. opened by
George Buck Jr, who owned
WCOS. "A block of records
under one roof" the radio ads
screamed ... well it was a
big building, but a rather
tiny city block.

George sold the store to the
WCOS bookkeeper's husband,
Wayne Stiles. the upstairs
was full of obsolete unused
recording gear, Buck was a
jazz collector, still ownshttp://www.jazzology.com

with Wayne in charge, the
main income was from pirate
8track tapes, so when Goff
left & i got hired, he let
me have fun with the records.

back to Budget, the foundation
of all that was now and hip ...
there was also Record Bar #9,
bright and shiny in the far
environs of Dutch Square, and
they carried IMPORTS, wow!
but no bus to suburbia, and
it was a very long bike ride.

so there was Music City and
there was Budget. somewhere
in there, the owner sold
Budget (as we called it) to
Charley Thomas, and it was
run from then till the end
by him & his wife Denise.

oh, one more thing about
Music City. urban renewal
hit it, in the form of a
tornado. it reopened in a
tiny building nearby, but
didn't really matter. Wayne
died, his daughter ran it,
and eventually his wife got
caught with her hand in the
cookie jar at WCOS, and none
of it mattered anymore, well
actually it hadn't for years.

Budget had great employees,
the kind who are obsolete in
this day of Google, they just
*knew*. Ricky Wilson, the
late and lamented Tony Kirven,
people who were more concerned
with turning you on to things
than with upselling ... at
one point, they expanded, took
the other half of the first
story of the building, but that
didn't work out so well and
they contracted again, squeezed
me out of a job, but i later
returned ...

in the early/mid 70s, there was
Tunes and Things, the next block
over, at 933 S. Main Street. not
the side of the building where
the Nick is now, the other side,
the one that eventually became
a Kinko's. they never could
quite get the students to walk
the extra block, but carried a
full line of jazz, imports (but
not as many as Budget), and
bootlegs. $3.99 for vinyl boots
back then, before they vanished
and returned in the 80s at $25 a
pop ...

store did well enough, but the
owner wanted to expand, opened
another store in Irmo (way too
soon) and went into concert
promotions (Gino Vanelli or
Chuck Mangione, anyone?) didn't
understand the principle of
credit, that is, that you still
had to pay sometime, and went
bankrupt. oh, well, another
job down the drain ...

BTW, Manifest didn't start in
5 Points, that was Ron Marsh's
X records, though it had
another name & a different 5
Points location to begin with,
can remember, Vinyl Love maybe?
Carl was some sort of silent
partner i think, but it wasn't
Manifest ...

oh, and when The Cyclist moved
out of the cottage, I believe
that it was upstairs in the
building pictured, until it
moved to 5 Points.

The little store on Devine St
was Tape World ... and if any
of you remember Always Records,
first on Knox Abbott, and then
on Rosewood, well HELLO, you!

digging through old memories
doesn't always bring immediate
results ... so it's error
correction time. The Cyclist
didn't move from "the cottage"
to upstairs from Budget, it
was actually next door, and
one of Joe Azar's other
ventures, Upstairs Audio was
(you guessed it) upstairs.

back in the day, Meri's main
competition at least as far
as my limited geographic
boundaries took me was HiFi
Sounds, in 5 Points. they
sold albums, 45s, even had
listening booths, though
they were more for the adult
classical customers, they
didn't think much of the
kidlets who wanted to listen
to 45s. my first record
purchases were there ... and
the Roses' a few doors down
was good for cutouts ...
especially at the point when
all mono albums were being
deleted ... damn, i wish i'd
had more money then ...

FWIW, i worked at Music City,
Tunes & Things (twice, once
on Main St, once in Irmo),
School Kids (for 2 days,
didn't realize that "i'll
call you about your schedule"
meant that i was supposeded
to call *him*, so i waited
for a call that never came,
Record Bar #9 (2x), Budget
Tapes, and Always Records,
so i been there, done that.
five or six years at WUSC,
as well ... "fired" for the
crime of being a non-student
once i finally graduated ...

i ended up back in the Tunes
& Things space when it was
Kinko's, until i rode the
Kinko's express out of
Cola town in '88 ... whew!

this article was brought to
my attention by my ex-husband,
who once worked at Sounds
Familiar ... and if anyone
remembers his mid-80s band,
Nylon Mustang, or even if you
don't and want to check out
some fine mid-80s original
Cola town sounds, see

Jane,
Where in Irmo was Tunes & Things, and what years where they open? I was 15 in 1985, and I remember the closest record store to the St. Andrews area was the Dutch Square area. I vaguely remember a School Kids open in the shopping strip next to Susie Q's BBQ (where Hungry Howie's is located currently), and maybe one in the Irmo Kroger, but not sure. I bought my first CD at School Kids, paid $11.99 for a used copy of Ride the Lightning. Still have it, w/ the sticker!

Jonathan, sorry i didn't check back
here till now ... the 2nd Tunes &
Things store was in Seven Oaks
Shopping Center ... it didn't last
very long, less than a year ...
probably opened & closed in 1975.
waaaay too early for the area ...

IrmoJeff, which Kroger? Sounds
Familiar was on Bush River Road
in the Bush River Mall, with a
Kroger & a Richway, Flipside (&
i worked there too) was in the
Decker Mall, with (you guessed
it) a Kroger & a Richway ... if
you're from Irmo, I guess it was
Sounds Familiar ... the third
"Richway" Mall was on Devine St,
or maybe the street had changed
its name by the time it got
there, Woodhill Mall. no Kroger,
but there was a Record Bar ...

I remember Flipside. When they went out of business, the sign outside said "Going out FOR business", which was a bit more optimistic than what was really going on. They seemed to have some knowledgeable folks, though the ones I recall were guys.

I'm glad you remember a Record Bar in Woodhill Mall (on Garners Ferry). I do too, but folks commenting on the record store posts had about convinced me I was wrong about that.

Thanks for all the info. And, just, FYI, if you just keep typing and let wordwap fold your lines and hit return between paragraphs, your comments will come up in a wider format, though I'm glad ot have them in any format.

Record Bar went into Woodhill when
the mall first opened. After they'd
closed that store, Sounds Familiar
moved in, i don't recall if it was the
same space, or how much time
elapsed between the two ...

Sounds Familiar's first store was
originally in the strip shopping
center (Landmark? dunno, but not
Cedar Terrace, closer to Leesburg
Road), and there *was* a grocery
store there, but i don't remember
if it was a Kroger. SF moved from
there to Woodhill after Record Bar
shut that store.

so ... the correct answer is BOTH,
Record Bar, then Sounds Familiar.

Ted, this is the way i've written on
the intertubes since back in the
90s. it's more of an affectation
now than it was then, back then,
i couldn't really type, and made
this my "style". recognisable by
those who know me, no matter
where we met ... or where we
met again ...

Greetings, Steven Brown here - worked at Budget from January '76, until the new owner could get around to firing me - sometime in spring '78. Rikki was off to Texas - formed a ambient-ish group "Svrgical Tools" & the late, great Tony Kirven and I soldiered off to Schoolkids. That was a great time for music in Columbia. I used to drive to Budget from the Upstate to buy imports while in high school. It was a great team: Rikki, Tony, Denny Rej, Colson, John Stone and me. Miss all of you very much - should have a reunion. Peace, Steven

...and Denise ( Charlie's wife ) was cool. I'd love to re-connect with John & Denny from Budget and Doug & Lou from T'n'T, as well. Lot of fun back then - lots of GREAT, if not, foggy memories. I was normally Budget's "closer" - keeping it open until 9am most nights. A reunion should include ALL the shops' employees....

How many of you remember Billy "Fred" Arnold who had a record store on both sides in the building shown? Budget was pretty good in it's heyday and so was Music City.. What became of the old Buget crowd managers? I think it was Doug I remember the most since he could get all these "import" Lp's that no one else could get at the time.

Jane, if you happen to check back in. . . I had asked Dale Cambell if this album was in print (@1978/1980ish), and he said, "No, but I know Jane has one." Some weeks after that I was browsing thru used records at Rich's Used Records (now Papa Jazz), and I found Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" album, and there was a name tag on the vinyl label with the name "Jane [last name omitted for obvious reasons]." I later told Dale I had found the album, and that it had this name on it. He said, "I wish I had known she wanted to get rid of it. . . I might have taken it!"

I spent all of my money here A funny incident occurred one day in the store when I was there. John Denver walked in. He browsed the bins a bit. Nodded and I mumbled a "Hi" back. After a few minutes he walked out. Tony looks at me and says, "What a jerk. He didn't buy anything". Which led to lots of laughter.
Here's the Tony Kirven Memorial Page on facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/profile.php?id=100002178573891

Hi Dave..I still have some of my Beatles collection, but sold the majority to Perry Cox back in 1997.. It's gotten TOO expensive now..everyone thinks there beatles items are made of gold and want a small fortune for it.. I didnt know it had been that long since Tony had died... I moved back here from Nashville in '99.

I knew Charley and Denise quite well - he was an old boyfriend with whom I had reconnected. Denise was very accepting of our friendship back in those days. I don't know where she is now, but he is a building inspector for Lexington County and probably very easy to locate. I am good friends with his most recent ex-wife and with their daughter, Sarah.

I knew Charley & Denise from Budget Tapes & Records quite well. He was an old boyfriend with whom I reconnected in the mid 70s. Denise was very accepting of our friendship. I don't know what happened to her, but he is a building inspector for Lexington County and probably very easily located. I am good friends with his most recent ex-wife and their daughter, Sarah.

@Eric - I have wondered the same. I met Ron back in July 1983 when I opened a car stereo shop in the old gas station at the corner of Harden and Devine where most recently Harpers restaurant was located. Ron and his business, X-Records was my next door neighbor. When I first went in, Ron's record shop was called The Vinyl Emporium. He changed the name sometime in 1983. Ron and I were pretty good friends being that we were in business right next to each other. Sometime in 1984 the property he I and were on was sold. Out-Spokin bicycles were in the building behind us and there was a china restaurant on the other side of Ron's shop. later that year Ron moved to a new spot in five points next to Blue Sky's gallery. After that Ron was doing some DJ work for a radio station called wxly or something. I remember they called it the number one hit kicker and had a morning DJ called mountain man. Last I heard of Ron.